Make Your Colors Sing
Workshops | This program is completed
Ginny Fergus will share her experience and knowledge of using color to create engaging, emotional, energetic, and expressive watercolor paintings. Color mixing, color placement, and using color as a compositional tool will be features of the workshop. Demonstrations and then using color concepts in actual paintings will be the learning modes. Participants will paint from photos and from life. A willingness to jump in and use lots of paint and water is really the only requirement! Ginny’s teaching style and philosophy is based on meeting students where they are artistically and helping them to go further in their own direction as artists. Please visit her website www.vsfergus.com to see examples of her use of color.
- Here is a link to my Supply List at www.jerrysartarama.com
- http://shop.pe/542dw
- This is not an exhaustive list, but rather some choices of certain items you might like. To view my recommended paints, search Winsor Newton Professional Watercolors and then click on Tubes. You will see all the colors and tube sizes available and can choose what you want or need. Cheap Joes & Dick Blick are also good sites for ordering supplies.
- PAINT:
- I recommend Winsor & Newton Professional Water Color Tubes.
- I also use Holbein, Old Holland, & Sennelier, and always artist grade.
- *If you have or prefer another brand, or slightly different colors, please feel free to use and/or add to what you have.
- COLORS:
- The colors below are my main palette of colors. I use them all, plus others that strike my fancy. The ones with an asterisk are necessary or choose close substitutions. The others will be very nice to have, but you can do without. If you have a friend coming to the workshop, feel free to share tubes of colors you may be unsure of using again.
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- *French Ultramarine Blue
- *Cobalt Blue
- Cerulean Blue
- *Manganese Blue Hue
- Cobalt Turquoise Light
- *Hooker’s Green
- *Permanent Sap Green
- *Cobalt Green
- *Veronese Green or Emerald Green
- *Viridian
- Green Gold
- Quinacridone Gold
- *Aureolin
- Cadmium Lemon
- *Cadmium Yellow Deep
- *Naples Yellow
- *Scarlet Lake
- *Permanent Alizarin Crimson
- Opera Rose
- *Cobalt Violet
- *Venetian Red
- Burnt Umber
- PAPER:
- I recommend Arches or Arches Bright White paper, 140lb. It is the most forgiving paper.
- You can bring quarter sheets you have torn from a full sheet, or a similar size watercolor block, also 140lb. I would bring a 10 sheet block or the equivalent in torn paper.
- I also use Lana and Fabriano, always 100% cotton paper. So, if there is a paper you know and love, please feel free to use it.
- *Bad or cheap paper is the biggest killer of a watercolor painting, so don't scrimp on this.
- PALETTE:
- White Plastic or Metal Folding Watercolor Palette With Enough Wells for Your Colors and a Large Mixing Area
- BRUSHES:
- ***Make sure you get Watercolor Brushes as opposed to oil painting brushes!
- #10 or #12 and #6 Rounds that come to a good point and spring back after being wet.
- Sable is best and pricey, synthetic and natural/synthetic blends are fine.
- Isabey and Raphael are my brand choices and I use sable.
- OTHER:
- Plastic Cup such as a large yogurt container
- Pencils and Gum Eraser (the kind that crumbles as you use it)
- Apron
- Paper Towels and/or white rags from old t-shirt or dish towel
- Pen and Notebook or Small Sketch Pad if you are a note taker or sketcher
- Backing Board several inches larger all around than your watercolor paper - foam core board or gator board is best
- Roll of High Quality One Inch Masking Tape
- CAMERA, PHONE with camera, or iPad for taking notes, recording paintings and painting progress, and for photo images for future paintings.
- Any questions? Please contact me directly: vsfergus@gmail.com
Virginia Fergus
"My Paintings are Daydreams that take on a life of their own."
Painting has always been a natural experience for me. My maternal grandmother gave to me my first paint set and lessons when I spent time with her in summer in tiny Canoe, Alabama. She was a late-in-life painter and recognized a kindred spirit in me even as I was a small child.
In my early twenties I decided watercolor was the medium for me. After three years of weekly lessons I moved away and kept painting on my own. My process has changed and is a non-traditional approach. But thanks to my firm foundation in classic watercolor techniques I was able to branch out and come to something uniquely mine.
Lately I am returning to my very first painting experiences with my grandmother and am exploring oils. It is a new challenge and is keeping me on my toes. Going back and forth between watercolor and oil is a brain and hand workout, and I love it!
For the past twenty-two years I have been a full-time professional artist. It has been an incredible ride! Hundreds of outdoor shows, several dozen states, and several countries later, I can still be thankful for the perfectly matched career I have. It is a one woman show from making, framing, and presenting the paintings, meeting my patrons and collectors, and sharing and selling my art. It suits my gifts, affinities, and personality.
I am thankful for every painting experience, every admirer, and every sale!